Music
by Pride of Ergastulum
Summary: Emma learns that its better to leave sleeping twilights lie, while trying to do a good deed. This is based off my theory that Nic's deafness is due to a bone conduction problem since in the anime there are a couple of moments where its almost as if he can hear loud noises e.g. Worick hitting a pipe off a wall. Just part of the slow trust building between Nic and the newest Handyman


The door quietly clicked shut behind her, Emma slung her rucksack down on the floor wiping sweat from her brow, the open window in the apartment let in a warm breeze. 'It's such a nice day out,' she thought to herself, the sun was high in the sky over the city with the temperature rising to match, she'd headed out to the library since there was nothing better to do today bringing back as many as they would let her. Her eyes drifted towards the sofa where Nic was snoozing his feet barely dangling off the edge, the book he must have been reading held limply in his hands, Emma smiled gently at the sleeping figure, with the normal tension gone from his face and the hair falling across his eyes he looked closer to her age than his actual thirty-four. Slipping off her shoes she slowly approached the sofa, Emma gently eased the book from his hands, she held her breath knowing from experience that the slightest disturbance could wake the man before her. Emma turned the book over in her hands to read the blurb, it looked like a classic crime novel, interest piqued she flipped through the first few pages, 'Looks pretty good, I may have to borrow it,' about to sit down she looked back across at Nic, feeling bad that she didn't have something to give him in return considering she'd just nabbed his book. An idea popped into her head and she went to retrieve something from her rucksack, rooting through it she pulled out her Ipod and a pair of headphones, disconnecting the more discrete earbuds she plugged in the bulky headphones, Emma normally kept them for when she wanted to make it obvious that she didn't want to be disturbed.

Emma knelt by the couch and carefully slipped the headphones behind Nic's neck placing them so they sat behind his ears on the bone of his skull. "I read about this somewhere, he should feel the vibrations," scrolling through her songs she wondered which one to pick, "it should be easier with a deep bass beat, so this one." Setting the volume to max she laid down the Ipod and perched on the edge of the sofa to read the book she'd 'borrowed' from Nic, humming along to the song she had put on Emma turned to the first page.

A hand shot out and grabbed her wrist, she yelped as her arm was twisted sharply, falling to the floor she turned to face the on edge Twilight, "Nicolas," she pleaded, "I'm sorry, please let me go," a moan of pain escaped her lips as she felt the bones in her wrist grinding together. He stared at her coldly for a few more seconds before releasing his grip, relief flooded through her as she rubbed her wrist gingerly moving it to see if anything had been broken, choking back the tears she hurriedly apologised, "I'm sorry, I don't know what I was thinking, sorry, sorry."

Nic grunted at her before cuffing her around the ear, Emma took the blow without complaint knowing full well that she deserved it. "What the hell were you doing?" he growled, the girl before him flinched reflexively.

Looking up so he could see her lips she attempted to explain herself, "I picked up your book so thought I might borrow it, I just wanted to give you something in return, sorry."

He stared at her in wonder, 'What on earth was she thinking?' he reached out a hand towards her, feeling a strange twinge in his chest as she drew back from him after the earlier slap to the head, sighing he gently flicked at her forehead. Emma looked up in surprise, her blue eyes shimmering with unshed tears, he gestured to the headphones now around his neck still blaring out music he couldn't hear then signed the word for joke.

Catching his meaning Emma shook her head quickly, "I know it's weird but I'd heard that by placing the headphones against the bones of your skull you can feel the vibrations, so I thought maybe I could let you feel the music instead, sorry I didn't mean to upset you," the string of apologies continued. Ignoring her, Nic closed his eyes and placed the headphones back behind his ears, tightly pressing them in to the skin, a strong beat pulsed through them, he inhaled sharply in surprise, it was if the beat was being beamed directly into his skull, he could feel the beat of the music changing in his head, he couldn't tell if there were any words to the song but he got the feeling it had a lot of energy at the rate the vibrations were passing through his skull.

Eventually the vibrations stopped, his expression softened opening his eyes he saw Emma's worried expression, keeping his face expressionless Nic motioned for her to play another song. A smile spread across her face flicking through her Ipod she picked one of her favourite songs, even though it was quieter than the previous one she hoped it would still work. Lying back on the sofa Nic waited for the hum of the music, this song was a lot softer than the first one he concentrated hard pressing the headphones closer to his skull, looking over to the girl in front of him he saw her lips moving as she sang along. Shifting onto his side he stretched out his arm, placing his thumb over the centre of her neck, Emma jumped in surprise but soon relaxed under the gentle pressure and continued to sing, Nic smiled at her reaction, he could feel her windpipe underneath his thumb, the slight vibrations from her throat changed as she changed pitch hitting the higher notes in the song.

The song eventually ended, Emma looked down at her lap, her cheeks flushed from embarrassment, 'This is the first time he's heard, well felt, me sing what if I was awful? Could he tell if I was off tune?' the thoughts whirled around her head, making her blush harder as she realised how weird it was to worry about Nic critiquing her singing. Strong fingers tilted her chin up so she was looking Nic in the eye, a small smirk played on his lips as he signed "thank you," Emma smiled back bashfully shrugging it off, "Next time, not when I'm asleep," although his voice always had a certain harshness to it, it was much gentler than when he had been woken up.

Nic removed the headphones and placed them around Emma's neck, she collapsed on the other sofa head now buried in the book she'd basically stolen from him. 'Her voice felt so smooth, it moved in time with the vibrations from the headphones almost perfectly,' even if he couldn't hear anything, he found he enjoyed tactile experience. Nic looked over at the girl, headphones now securely over her ears, her lips moved slightly although he couldn't tell if she was singing our mouthing the words out as she read, he felt a slight urge to ask her to sing again shaking his head he closed his eyes again, 'I guess music could be pretty cool.'


End file.
